Buckle up, art enthusiasts! This year is primed to be another year of groundbreaking brilliance from Black artists. A tapestry of Black exhibitions and experiences will be explored nationwide, from African art from the Middle Ages to the personal art collection of EBONY cover star Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. The works featured bring joy, beauty, and unbridled imagination to every installation.
From soul-stirring canvases to immersive installations, prepare to be moved, inspired and even challenged by these exhibitions that promise to ignite conversations and leave you breathless with their sheer creative force.
Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s), Fotografiska New York—New York City
French multimedia artist Josèfa Ntjam has her first institutional solo show in the U.S. featuring a selection of new works, including biomorphic sculptures, photomontages printed on plexiglass and aluminum and the U.S. debut of Matter Gone Wild. This immersive video installation bends perceptions of space, time, historical narrative and cultural identity as it pushes the limits of moving-image technology. From February 2 through May 2024.
The Nicholas Brothers in Stormy Weather, 1943. Image: courtesy Margaret Herrick Library.
Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, Detroit Institute of Arts—Detroit, Michigan
Honoring the legacy of African American filmmakers and actors from the dawn of cinema to the aftermath of the Civil Rights, Regeneration‘s collection of historical photographs, costumes, props, posters and interactive elements seeks to revive lost and forgotten films, filmmakers and performers for a contemporary audience. From February 4 through June 23, 2024.
Untitled (Natural Hairstyles). Kwame Brathwaite, 2018. Image: The Dean Collection. Image: courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © KwameBrathwaite. (Photo: Joshua White / JWPictures.com).
Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, Brooklyn Museum—Brooklyn, New York
Following the philosophy of “Black artists supporting Black artists,” Giants is the first major exhibition devoted to the power couple’s world-class holdings of works by multigenerational Black diasporic artists. It includes the monumental works of Derrick Adams, Arthur Jafa, Meleko Mokgosi, Kwame Brathwaite, Ebony G. Patterson (pictured up top) and more. From February 10 through July 7, 2024.
Entryways: Nontsikelelo Mutiti, ICA Philadelphia—Philadelphia
Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator Nontsikelelo Mutiti is presenting the inaugural project of a new series that commissions artists to activate the façade of ICA’s building in partnership with Maharam. Mutiti combines African hair braiding patterns with symbols often found in ironwork. From February 10 through December 1, 2024. The Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, reopening in February 2024, will also present works from Tomashi Jackson, Dominique White and Alberta Whittle and more Black artists.
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, The Metropolitan Museum of Art—New York City
This groundbreaking exhibition will establish the Harlem Renaissance as the first African-American-led movement of international modern art, featuring 160 works from Black artists portraying everyday modern life in the new Black cities during the great migration. From February 25 through July 28, 2024.
Home Again, Newfields: A Place for Nature & the Arts—Indianapolis, Indiana
Brooklyn-based artist Heather Hart shares three brand-new sculptures centered around home and shelter, along with the canary yellow interactive rooftop Oracle of Intimation, where guests can climb through the windows and make the roof their stage. Home Again is the first installation of The Hawryluk Collection of Art in Nature, a new series of outdoor public art installations in The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. From April 24, 2024.
Africa & Byzantium, Cleveland Museum of Art—Cleveland, Ohio
Africa & Byzantium explores the complex artistic relationships between northern and eastern African kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire, their impact and the cultural legacy of that interaction in the form of the living traditions still practiced today. This is the first international loan exhibition to treat this subject with more than 160 works of secular and sacred art, including large-scale frescoes, mosaics, luxury goods, jewelry, panel paintings, architectural elements, textiles and illuminated manuscripts. The exhibition is organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. From April 14 through July 21, 2024.
Overburdened with Significance (detail), Simone Leigh, 2011. Image: Bridgitt and Bruce Evans, © Simone Leigh, photo by Timothy Schenck.
Simone Leigh, LACMA—Los Angeles
A traveling exhibition organized by the ICA Boston and co-presented by LACMA and the California African American Museum, Simone Leigh is the first comprehensive survey of the richly layered work of this celebrated artist. Featuring approximately 20 years of Leigh’s production in ceramic, bronze, video and installation and addressing a wide swath of historical periods, geographies and traditions, Leigh’s art references vernacular and hand-made processes from across the African diaspora, as well as forms traditionally associated with African art and architecture. From May 26, 2024, through Jan 20, 2025.
TA Union of Hope: 1869, Tenement Museum—New York City
The historic New York City tenement building, 97 Orchard Street, has an all-new permanent apartment exhibit telling the story of Joseph and Rachel Moore, Black New Yorkers who made their home in Lower Manhattan’s tenements in the 1860s and 1870s. Now open.
